Ancient Hard Drive Access Challenge

[knyghtbyte]

hiya folks, i have a 7200rpm 9GB harddrive from my old Dell Dimension (trying to remember the model, mighta been a XPS T500, many moons ago now..lol), also a 5200rpm 40Gb HDD i bought from a shop around 3-4 years ago, i want to access them, but as total slaves, not install them into a system (totally virus laden and some corrupt sectors on one of the drives),anyone know of a gizmo you can buy that USB/Firewires into your computer that u can plug them into? i cant remember what the drives are atm, will check when im home, probably the 40gb is 66 the 9gb i cant remember, might be 66 too.......
or is my only way to open the case and IDE them up to the mobo direct? (and in that case can i hook them up to my system as listed below in my sig?)

 

[jvarszegi]

catchy title for a new reality series

 

[Zepper]

If they are UDMA 33 or ATA 66 or up drives, they should work in an external enclosure. However, the data that is on them may not be readable - it depends on how they were formatted. You might want to hook them one at a time to your current machine and wipe them with the Hitachi Drive Fitness Test (called zero fill). Then mount them in the external case and reformat them. At least that's what I'd try.
.bh.

b-brrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

 

[Vegito]

they should be since my xps t500 was a p3 500, even p2 uses ide.. the only one that uses those RLL/MFM are like 286/386 (intro of ide)

 

[knyghtbyte]

i dont want to wipe them, i want to access some info on them....lol

i was wondering if u could buy an external cage that u IDE them to, then the cage firewires or USB ports to the main computer, if that was possible it feels like it would be easier and safer than hooking them up directly by IDE.....mebbe it wouldnt, i just dont wanna frag my nu'ish puter...lol

 

[Jeff7]

This will do the job, though it lacks any kind of meaningful documentation, such as how to configure drives for master or slave (experiment here). Some drives I've used with it work only as Slave, some as Master, some as Single, some as Cable Select. I just try different configurations until Windows XP detects a drive.
And one pointer that'll save you some trouble: unplug the entire thing from the PC's USB port first (don't just power it down). If you plug it back in, especially an identical drive, Windows thinks that it's still the same drive, and it really screws up the partition table. I nearly lost a drive full of stuff, but R-studio was able to recover everything.
Something else - to power up the drive, I recommend plugging the molex connector into the drive first, then plug the power brick into the wall. Plugging things sometimes creates a tiny spark, and thus a small power surge. Better to have the surge go into the power supply first, so it can be filtered out, rather than right into the hard drive (yes, this thing lacks an ON/OFF switch).

Overall review of the thing: really nifty piece of technology. IDE -> USB adapter, with a power brick, as a USB port doesn't provide enough power for a hard drive. I'd recommend something similar, but I've not yet seen anything that provides the utility of this device, that also solves the design flaws.
However, the poorly translated documentation is also just plain poor. You figure a lot of the connections out for yourself, though there really aren't that many.


And if there are viruses on the things, make very sure you have updated AV software on the PC the drives are connecting to, because as soon as Windows is able to access the drives, the viruses might spring to life.

 

[knyghtbyte]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
This will do the job, though it lacks any kind of meaningful documentation, such as how to configure drives for master or slave (experiment here). Some drives I've used with it work only as Slave, some as Master, some as Single, some as Cable Select. I just try different configurations until Windows XP detects a drive.
And one pointer that'll save you some trouble: unplug the entire thing from the PC's USB port first (don't just power it down). If you plug it back in, especially an identical drive, Windows thinks that it's still the same drive, and it really screws up the partition table. I nearly lost a drive full of stuff, but R-studio was able to recover everything.
Something else - to power up the drive, I recommend plugging the molex connector into the drive first, then plug the power brick into the wall. Plugging things sometimes creates a tiny spark, and thus a small power surge. Better to have the surge go into the power supply first, so it can be filtered out, rather than right into the hard drive (yes, this thing lacks an ON/OFF switch).

Overall review of the thing: really nifty piece of technology. IDE -> USB adapter, with a power brick, as a USB port doesn't provide enough power for a hard drive. I'd recommend something similar, but I've not yet seen anything that provides the utility of this device, that also solves the design flaws.
However, the poorly translated documentation is also just plain poor. You figure a lot of the connections out for yourself, though there really aren't that many.


And if there are viruses on the things, make very sure you have updated AV software on the PC the drives are connecting to, because as soon as Windows is able to access the drives, the viruses might spring to life.

so this thing means i dont have to put the drive physically into my computer case? i can just fix it in an external cradle?
cool beans...
just gotta try and find it on an english site now to save on shipping....LOL

cheers muchly jeff7
:beer:

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: knyghtbyte
so this thing means i dont have to put the drive physically into my computer case? i can just fix it in an external cradle?
cool beans...
just gotta try and find it on an english site now to save on shipping....LOL

cheers muchly jeff7
:beer:

Why don't you just hook it up as a slave drive and copy off the data?

Am I missing something?

 

[knyghtbyte]

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Originally posted by: knyghtbyte
so this thing means i dont have to put the drive physically into my computer case? i can just fix it in an external cradle?
cool beans...
just gotta try and find it on an english site now to save on shipping....LOL

cheers muchly jeff7
:beer:

Why don't you just hook it up as a slave drive and copy off the data?

Am I missing something?

i'd rather not have it in the case running off the cases power supply and adding extra heat......

also i would imagine i'll be slightly safer from virus/worms/trojans/etc using it via USB than by direct connection to the mobo....
plus i have two drives i want to connect, will save a lot of hassle just swapping them out of external cradle compared to opening up the case etc etc.....

 

[Excelsior]

Uh...I am with Matthias. I don't see a good reason why you shouldn't just hook them up as slaves and recover the data. You are obviously an enthusiast to SOME degree, but it would seem you didn't build your computer...anyway..

I wouldn't worry about heat. Those drives would have to put out an unusual amt of heat to cause any problems in that dell. Your options are to spend $30 for an enclosure or adapter, or do what everyone else does and put them in for a bit.

 

[Matthias99]

also i would imagine i'll be slightly safer from virus/worms/trojans/etc using it via USB than by direct connection to the mobo....

You're 'imagining' some sort of safety that doesn't exist. There's no difference as far as the OS is concerned if the drive is inside the case or hooked up via USB. Data is data.

plus i have two drives i want to connect, will save a lot of hassle just swapping them out of external cradle compared to opening up the case etc etc.....

Which takes all of about two minutes (that's not a "lot of hassle", as far as I'm concerned). I can't see how spending $30 for an external enclosure/adapter (unless you're planning on reusing it for something else) is worthwhile here.

 

[knyghtbyte]

i think my main concern is the power side of things, an earlier computer i had ended up dying due to me abusing the power supply (this was before i knew too much about the internals) by adding various hard & optical drives, a far more powerful graphics card than originally existed, more powerful sound card plus running a couple of USB powered devices.......poof......lol

i know this puter im on now with its 350w should be ok to add an extra hard drive, but cuz im running a GTO graphics card that does use a 12v connector as well as the pci-e supply im just trying to make sure i dont lose this one as its still somewhat new.....

can ya blame me for being once bitten twice shy?....lol

my technical proficiency so far is that i've fitted various graphics and sound cards into puters, changed out and added optical drives and hard drives.....not yet built one from scratch, but that is something im planning on doing in the new year once i got some money to build a cheap one that i'll sell on to my sisters b/f....


edit: forgot to mention, i do appreciate your concern in saving me unnecessary expense, im just loathe to blow up another PC...lol (hey, im british, humour me....heh)